Ponce, Puerto Rico

This was a surprising little stop where the town declared a holiday in celebration of a cruise ship stopping. It was only the 4th ship to stop here and the 2nd for Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas. Not too much to see right at the port. The downtown city is about 4.8 km inland. Four of us got a taxi for $10 and it took only about 10 minutes.

The city has a nice town square, a lovely park with banyan trees and a large fountain.

Ponce is in the southern part of Puerto Rico. It is the second most populated area next to San Juan which is about 1 1/2 hours away by car. Ponce is named after Juan Ponce de Leon y Loayza, the great-grandson of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon.

Many of the townspeople put on entertainment for us with dancing and music.

We went into the city hall but nothing was really there although there were a couple of interesting works of art. One of the highlights is a taste of ice cream at King’s Cones which is actually a sherbet in many fruit flavours. We tried the lemon and the mango. Very cold & refreshing.

After we returned from the downtown we took a free shuttle to La Guancha. There was a boardwalk along the water, however, when we got there we discovered that the boardwalk was closed due to damage from the recent hurricanes. We did walk along the area and there were some restaurants although no tourists were there. There was an old lighthouse and many fish in

Some locals entertaining us in PonceThese dancers got the audience involved. I danced with them for a while.

the water. Further along we could have walked over to the beach area but decided to return to the ship.

I hope more people get to visit this quaint city before Diamonds International moves in.